When behind the wheel, three out of five drivers say they have felt nervousness at some stage.

Slightly under half of drivers have suffered from anxiety when driving while 19% have experienced panic at the wheel.

Women drivers tend to be less confident than their male counterparts and under 30's are the age group with the least confidence when driving.

Commenting on the findings, Deirdre Ashe of Liberty Insurance said: The results of this survey show that as a country, we currently lack confidence in our driving abilities and feel increasingly unsafe on our roads.

"In many ways, this isn’t entirely surprising. Our roads are busier than ever before, with more distractions for drivers, like smartphones.

"Adding to the danger is the huge number of uninsured private vehicles on Irish roads, estimated by the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) to be over 151,000."

Ms Ashe added: "In light of these findings, we all as drivers have a duty in taking greater personal responsibility for our actions on the road.

"By extension, road safety education is now more important than ever. For example, if drivers are particularly nervous entering roundabouts or parallel parking, they should be looking to address and improve on this, like taking advanced driving lessons with IAM Road Smart Ireland."